Here are just a few things currently being worked on in the animation industry that we will be seeing soon!
Filly Funtasia - TV series
A fantasy/sitcom style series about a group of young equine creatures who attend a magic school together. Based off of a successful toy line from Germany (which the series seems to be following loyally) it has been thought of as "My Little Pony meets Harry Potter", at least according to the TV Tropes website! The series will follow the protagonist Rose, a friendly pink unicorn, in coming-of-age stories about her and her group of close friends; Bella the loyal elf filly, Will the trickster fairy filly, Cedric the intelligent prince filly, and Lynn the adventurous (yet lacking self confidence) witch filly. The antagonists of the series are the duo of Battiwigs the bat and his wizard master who he communicates with through a mirror. The Filly toys are of course aimed at young children, although producers have noted that the original generation of collectors are a little older now, and that the TV series is set to appeal to older kids too. Filly Funtasia's air date has been changed a few times, but there is a possibility of it airing sometime in the following year.
I remember the Filly toys when they first came to England and thought they looked adorable, so I am glad that this toy line is finally getting an animated series. As someone who just loves horses in general I am definitely looking forward to this series, but what else particularly interests me about it is that the characters appear to have a lot of depth to them, while also avoiding stereotypes. For example, the character Lynn who I mentioned earlier has been labelled the "adventuror" of the group, but it has also been mentioned that she is generally an unconfident character who dislikes being the centre of attention. Normally these traits do not go hand in hand, but there's no reason they cannot. This is most certainly a series that I have high hopes for.
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The Lion Guard - TV series
An upcoming Disney Junior series currently expected to begin in just over a year from now. The protagonist is a character brand new to the Lion King franchise - Prince Kion, who is the son of Simba and Nala and the younger brother of Kiara. The series has been described as being "The Lion King meets The Avengers", to give us an idea of what it might be like, and as it is set to air on Disney Junior this suggests that it is targeted at young kids. Kion will be a part of a group of animals who work together to protect their home and Simba's kingdom, the Pridelands. The group consists of all-new characters, including an egret, a cheetah, a hippo, and even a honey badger. Other characters from the franchise expected to return are the comic duo of Timon and Pumbaa, the ever loyal Rafiki, the king's advisor Zazu, and even Simba's late father Mufasa.
As we do not know a whole lot about this series as of yet, I haven't quite decided how excited I am for it, but as The Lion King is my all-time favourite film, I am glad to hear that, in this day and age of Disney's "revival era", they have decided to revive the franchise, and I wish them the best of luck with it.
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Bone - movie
A film trilogy of Jeff Smith's graphic novel is currently in the works, to be produced by Lin Pictures and Animal Logic. The story follows the Bone cousins - the sane man of the group Fone Bone, his greedy and rebellious cousin Phoney Bone, and their happy-go-lucky other cousin Smiley Bone. Phoney Bone is on the run after getting in some serious trouble in their hometown Boneville, and the trio end up getting lost far away, are taken in by some humans with some fantasic backstories of their own, and wind up in a series of exciting yet perilous adventures spanning over the next year of their lives. It is a fantasy story consisting of dragons, other strange creatures, mysterious recurring dreams that surely must have some meaning, and a dark and bloody battle. The trilogy is going to be CG animated, and creator Jeff Smith once expressed years ago (when he refused to give Nickelodeon the rights for the movie) that he imagines the films to have the same epicness as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. The film is still in preproduction and therefore we have no idea what the release date will be. Anything can happen in that time!
Bone is my favourite graphic novel and I am so happy that a movie is finally in the works. As the original book is so perfectly written, I admit I am a little concerned about the film possibly missing out certain bits of information, or just changing things that will take away some of the epicness and excitement I am hoping for, so I really hope that Jeff Smith has something to do with the writing for the film. Personally, I think it'd be a good idea for them to use the graphic novel as their storyboard; it already consists of good camera angles and you can get a sense of timing from reading it too. Either way, I will definitely be watching this trilogy when it happens - let's just hope it definitely does happen!
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Peanuts - movie
The longest running newspaper comic strip consisting of some of the most recognisable cartoon characters in the world is also being made into a CGI animated movie. This is not the first Peanuts film, but it is the first one to be animated using this particular technique. I'll admit my skepticism from when I first heard about this - I simply could not imagine the visual style working in 3D, but since then the trailers have proven me wrong. Some very interesting animation techniques are being used in this film - the animators do not seem to be making full use of all the artsy camerawork you can do with CGI (that would be extremely difficult and time-consuming with hand-drawn animation) but the characters and sets are amazingly textured, so this seems to be their reason for using this style of animation. Not much is known about the storyline yet, but it will most likely consist of stories taken from the comic strips. Charles Schulz, who passed away on 13th February 2000, left in his will that he wanted no one to continue writing for the Peanuts series. Since then, a couple of direct-to-DVD cartoon films have been made, but respecting his wishes, they are made up of comic strip content. So I imagine that this is how they will go about writing this film too. Rest assured it looks like the whole Peanuts gang will be appearing, and the atmosphere of the film will stay true to that of the comic strips and existing animated specials. The film is to be released next November.
Peanuts is what originally inspired me to become a cartoonist myself. I loved how so many of the comic strips were based on real life events that had happened to Charles Schulz or other people he knew. It has now been nearly 15 years since Schulz's retirement from the comic strip, but his work is still clearly loved by many.
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Filly Funtasia - TV series
A fantasy/sitcom style series about a group of young equine creatures who attend a magic school together. Based off of a successful toy line from Germany (which the series seems to be following loyally) it has been thought of as "My Little Pony meets Harry Potter", at least according to the TV Tropes website! The series will follow the protagonist Rose, a friendly pink unicorn, in coming-of-age stories about her and her group of close friends; Bella the loyal elf filly, Will the trickster fairy filly, Cedric the intelligent prince filly, and Lynn the adventurous (yet lacking self confidence) witch filly. The antagonists of the series are the duo of Battiwigs the bat and his wizard master who he communicates with through a mirror. The Filly toys are of course aimed at young children, although producers have noted that the original generation of collectors are a little older now, and that the TV series is set to appeal to older kids too. Filly Funtasia's air date has been changed a few times, but there is a possibility of it airing sometime in the following year.
I remember the Filly toys when they first came to England and thought they looked adorable, so I am glad that this toy line is finally getting an animated series. As someone who just loves horses in general I am definitely looking forward to this series, but what else particularly interests me about it is that the characters appear to have a lot of depth to them, while also avoiding stereotypes. For example, the character Lynn who I mentioned earlier has been labelled the "adventuror" of the group, but it has also been mentioned that she is generally an unconfident character who dislikes being the centre of attention. Normally these traits do not go hand in hand, but there's no reason they cannot. This is most certainly a series that I have high hopes for.
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The Lion Guard - TV series
An upcoming Disney Junior series currently expected to begin in just over a year from now. The protagonist is a character brand new to the Lion King franchise - Prince Kion, who is the son of Simba and Nala and the younger brother of Kiara. The series has been described as being "The Lion King meets The Avengers", to give us an idea of what it might be like, and as it is set to air on Disney Junior this suggests that it is targeted at young kids. Kion will be a part of a group of animals who work together to protect their home and Simba's kingdom, the Pridelands. The group consists of all-new characters, including an egret, a cheetah, a hippo, and even a honey badger. Other characters from the franchise expected to return are the comic duo of Timon and Pumbaa, the ever loyal Rafiki, the king's advisor Zazu, and even Simba's late father Mufasa.
As we do not know a whole lot about this series as of yet, I haven't quite decided how excited I am for it, but as The Lion King is my all-time favourite film, I am glad to hear that, in this day and age of Disney's "revival era", they have decided to revive the franchise, and I wish them the best of luck with it.
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Bone - movie
A film trilogy of Jeff Smith's graphic novel is currently in the works, to be produced by Lin Pictures and Animal Logic. The story follows the Bone cousins - the sane man of the group Fone Bone, his greedy and rebellious cousin Phoney Bone, and their happy-go-lucky other cousin Smiley Bone. Phoney Bone is on the run after getting in some serious trouble in their hometown Boneville, and the trio end up getting lost far away, are taken in by some humans with some fantasic backstories of their own, and wind up in a series of exciting yet perilous adventures spanning over the next year of their lives. It is a fantasy story consisting of dragons, other strange creatures, mysterious recurring dreams that surely must have some meaning, and a dark and bloody battle. The trilogy is going to be CG animated, and creator Jeff Smith once expressed years ago (when he refused to give Nickelodeon the rights for the movie) that he imagines the films to have the same epicness as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. The film is still in preproduction and therefore we have no idea what the release date will be. Anything can happen in that time!
Bone is my favourite graphic novel and I am so happy that a movie is finally in the works. As the original book is so perfectly written, I admit I am a little concerned about the film possibly missing out certain bits of information, or just changing things that will take away some of the epicness and excitement I am hoping for, so I really hope that Jeff Smith has something to do with the writing for the film. Personally, I think it'd be a good idea for them to use the graphic novel as their storyboard; it already consists of good camera angles and you can get a sense of timing from reading it too. Either way, I will definitely be watching this trilogy when it happens - let's just hope it definitely does happen!
link
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Peanuts - movie
The longest running newspaper comic strip consisting of some of the most recognisable cartoon characters in the world is also being made into a CGI animated movie. This is not the first Peanuts film, but it is the first one to be animated using this particular technique. I'll admit my skepticism from when I first heard about this - I simply could not imagine the visual style working in 3D, but since then the trailers have proven me wrong. Some very interesting animation techniques are being used in this film - the animators do not seem to be making full use of all the artsy camerawork you can do with CGI (that would be extremely difficult and time-consuming with hand-drawn animation) but the characters and sets are amazingly textured, so this seems to be their reason for using this style of animation. Not much is known about the storyline yet, but it will most likely consist of stories taken from the comic strips. Charles Schulz, who passed away on 13th February 2000, left in his will that he wanted no one to continue writing for the Peanuts series. Since then, a couple of direct-to-DVD cartoon films have been made, but respecting his wishes, they are made up of comic strip content. So I imagine that this is how they will go about writing this film too. Rest assured it looks like the whole Peanuts gang will be appearing, and the atmosphere of the film will stay true to that of the comic strips and existing animated specials. The film is to be released next November.
Peanuts is what originally inspired me to become a cartoonist myself. I loved how so many of the comic strips were based on real life events that had happened to Charles Schulz or other people he knew. It has now been nearly 15 years since Schulz's retirement from the comic strip, but his work is still clearly loved by many.
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